主体思想

クリストフは、主体思想が崩壊せずに存続しているのは、とても奇妙なことだと述べている：

Q. 5. Do the people of North Korea have any idea how much food and fuel oil comes from international donors? If they do know, how is it justified in light of the juche policy of self-reliance? — Timothy Wells, San Francisco

More sophisticated North Koreans know about the reliance on foreigners, and it probably does cause some cognitive dissonance. The official explanation is that they've had bad weather that destroyed crops — every year since the mid-1990's. Obviously, that explanation has worn thin.
But remember that juche — self-reliance — isn't a theory so much as a religion. If a Christian loses a child, that doesn't make a Christian forsake Christianity. Likewise, many North Koreans manage to lose relatives to starvation or political oppression, and yet they still believe in the system. I've seen it in my interviews of Korean refugees abroad, and it seems very bizarre that people still believe in a system that has failed so badly.
Source:　NYT July 26, 2005

かつて東側の体制のなかでもっとも脆弱だと言われていた北朝鮮に対し、今こそ「お前はすでに死んでいる」のだと宣告することこそが有効なのだと述べた社会学者がいたが、北朝鮮の醒めない夢を無理やりに覚ます術は、どのような施策であるべきなのだろうか。